Sunday concert is swan song for Dr. Joe Miller

April 5, 2006

KALAMAZOO--Western Michigan University's Collegiate Singers
and University Chorale will celebrate Dr. Joe Miller's final
concert as their conductor Sunday, April 9, at 5 p.m. in the
Dalton Center Recital Hall.

Miller will leave WMU in June to assume responsibilities as
director of choral activities at Westminster Choir College in
Princeton, N.J. One of the nation's premier choral positions,
Miller is only the third person in the school's history to hold
this appointment.

The concert features music written for the passing of time.
A cantata by Jonathan Dove, one of the choral world's young "phenoms,"
will be featured in conjunction with pianists Karl Schrock and
Yu-Lien The, and the University Percussion Ensemble, directed
by Judy Moonert. Other featured compositions include Sarah Hopkin's
"Past Life Melodies," Eric Whitacre's "Water Night"
and Leonard Bernstein's "Make Our Garden Grow" from
"Candide."

In his seven years as director of choral studies, Miller has
made a significant contribution to choral excellence not only
in the School of Music but in the community, state, and region
as well.

Under Miller's leadership the University Chorale won the Grand
Prize at the Robert Schumann International Choral Competition
in 2002, the Silver Medal at the 28th International May Choir
Competition in 2005, presented featured performances at the American
Choral Directors Association national (2003) and regional (2006)
conventions, and performed for the opening concerts of the 2004
Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival and the inaugural
Michigan Festival of Sacred Music in 2001.

Sought after as a guest conductor and clinician, Miller has
conducted high school and collegiate All-State Choruses in Carnegie
Hall, Symphony Hall in Boston, and in Illinois, Tennessee and
Michigan during the current season.